1584_05

{1584,5}

sau ġhairoñ meñ ho ʿāshiq to ek usī se sharmāveñ
is mastī meñ āñkheñ us kī rahtī haiñ hushyār bahut

1) if the lover would be among a hundred Others, then before him alone she would be modest/embarrassed
2) in this intoxication, his eyes remain very alert/aware/abstemious

Notes:

hushyār : 'Intelligent, prudent; acquainted; well-informed; sensible; knowing; —mindful, cautious, alert, watchful, vigilant, on (one's) guard; awake; conscious; in (one's) senses; —abstemious, sober'. (Platts p.1230

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

Iqbal has versified, in a slightly imperfect style, one aspect of this theme:

bharī bazm meñ apne ʿāshiq ko tāṛā
tirī āñkh mastī meñ hushyār kyā thī

[in a whole gathering, you spotted your lover
in intoxication, how alert/aware your eye was!]

In Iqbal's verse, bharī bazm is a conventional phrase. In Mir's verse, sau ġhairoñ is a phrase that's a limit case of eloquence and 'pictorial' metaphor. In Iqbal's verse, tāṛā creates an effect not of the beloved but of the police or a detective. Mir, by using the theme of sharmānā , has shown the beloved's respect for rank/dignity. In Iqbal's verse, there's only 'intoxication'; Mir, by means of 'this intoxication' (that is, this degree of intoxication), has created an emphasis, and has also conveyed the intensity of the intoxication itself.

The beloved is modest/embarrassed before the lover because the lover is aware of passion and the longings of passion, and by means of passion he recognizes himself and also obtains mystical knowledge about the self.

Mir Hasan has well said,

ʿishq kā rāz agar nah khul jātā
is t̤araḥ tū nah ham se sharmātā

[if the secret/mystery of passion had not been revealed
you wouldn't have been modest/embarrassed before us in this way]

FWP:

SETS == EK; STRESS-SHIFTING
MOTIFS == EYES
NAMES == OTHER
TERMS

The one hundred, and the one-- a fine idiomatic use of ek to mean 'only, alone'. The hundred 'Others' are of course inadequate, but how exactly?

Depending on where we place the emphasis in the second line, there are various possibilities:

='This' (special) intoxication is the lover's, while thot of the Others is only ordinary intoxication.

='This (general) intoxication' doesn't affect the lover, but it does affect the Others.

=The lover's 'eyes' remain open, while theirs are closing in drunkenness or sleep.

=The lover's eyes remain 'very alert', while theirs are dulled or unfocused.

=The lover's eyes remain very 'abstemious, sober', so perhaps he's not really intoxicated at all.

=The lover's eyes remain fixed on the beloved, while the others are unobservant.